The first budget session of the 17th Uttar Pradesh Assembly commences here on Tuesday. The finance minister Rajesh Agarwal will present the maiden budget for the fiscal 2017-18 on July 11. The opposition parties particularly the main opposition Samajwadi party have geared up to corner the chief minister Yogi Adityanath on host of issues like the law and order, demolition of the cycle tracks and toppling of the elected chairman of the district panchyats through no confidence vote.
As per the agenda for the budget session communicated to the state assembly Speaker by the state government, the session will have 14 sittings and the session would conclude on July 28. The previous Akhilesh Yadav government in December last year had obtained a vote on account for the first four months of the current fiscal 2017-18, which is ending on July 31. Separate days have been earmarked for general debate on the budget and the department wise grants in the budget. The general debate on the budget would be held on July 17 and July 18 and the debate on the grants of different departments would be held for the next four days. The finance bill is likely to be adopted by the house on July 27.
The BJP and its allies have a massive strength of 325 in the 403-member House, while the opposition has only 74 MlAs. The very first session of Uttar Pradesh Assembly after
The BJP stormed to power in March had witnessed ruckus created by the opposition parties which protested with placards and threw papers balls at Governor Ram Naik over law-and-order situation in the state. The last session of the state assembly commenced on May 15 and concluded on May 19. During this session the State GST (Goods and Services Tax) Bill was passed unanimously.
The major heads of expenditure in 2017-18 budgets are on account of the loan waiver and the additional burden on the state exchequer due to the seventh pay commission recommendations for the state employees. State government’s needs additional resources of Rs 36,000 crore for financing the farmer’s loan waiver which is estimated to benefit nearly 86 lakh small and marginal farmers, and Rs 34,000 crore for the seventh pay panel’s recommendations and some other major commitments made in its election manifesto.
To fund the loan waiver, the state government will borrow from the market by floating Kisan Rahat Bonds for raising Rs 36,359 crore. The bonds are expected to be subscribed by the PSU banks and other financial institutions. The small and marginal farmers are 92.5 per cent of the total 2.30 lakh farmers in the state.
Chief Minister has assured the people that the state finances won’t slip into fiscal stress due to additional burden caused by loan waiver. Though chief minister has promised that the government will not pass on the burden of loan waiver to the people by imposing new taxes and the government will curtail its expenditure. However the fact is that the state government is no longer has the liberty to impose new tax, cess or entry tax. The new indirect tax regime GST has subsumed the VAT, entertainment tax, development tax, cess, luxury tax and goods and passengers tax on passengers and commercial vehicles.
This is for the first time that the state government will need additional resources on a huge scale in one financial year. The state’s total indebtedness is estimated to have increased from Rs 2,25,123.59 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 3,75,049.45 crore as on March 31 this year, according to official data. Additional borrowings might make funding for development projects more difficult as the state government spends about half of its revenue receipts on payment of salaries, pension and debt services. The expenditure on payment of salaries, pension and debt services is estimated to have reached 51.7 per cent on March 31against estimated 49.1 per cent in 2015-16.